1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to electrically erasable programmable read only memories and more particularly to a method of testing transconductance of the cells of such memories.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROM) such as flash memories are used for non volatile memory storage of information for data processing systems.
As dimensions for Flash EEPROM cells continue towards smaller geometries, degraded transconductance (gm) bitcells and/or the gm degradation of the bitcells during use poses a reliability issue. In particular, degraded gm bitcells cause reliability and/or performance issues and can result in a failure condition of the Flash EEPROM or the integrated circuit that incorporates the Flash EEPROM.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for overcoming the problems in the art as discussed above.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates identical items unless otherwise noted. The Figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.